The three dripping wet Hanson brothers entered the Saladen house. Strong, forceful wind pressed against the house, blowing the front door wide open. The wooden door slammed against the staircase behind it. Frantically, Courtney pushed the door closed, but it wasn’t so easy. She had never felt this great of wind before. Too shy to ask for help, Courtney wrestled with the door until it was closed and locked. Above the painfully loud noise of the dangerous storm, they heard a faint siren that Courtney knew was coming from the fire station. “That’s a tornado warning. We have to go into the basement,” she informed the guests.
As the four of them went to the basement, Isaac inspected Courtney. She was shaking a little and breathing hard. Though he couldn’t see her face from behind, he sensed she had a grin across her face. She was about his height and walked stiffly because of her extreme nervousness. This was to be expected of a Hanson fan. He knew the symptoms by heart--trembling, very quiet, silly grin, and most of all, the unmistakable Hanson shirt.
“Hanson’s here!” they heard a girl squeal as they walked down the steps.
“No kidding,” Lindsey said, “Zac is by me.” They had been pretending Hanson was there with them.
“Yeah, and Taylor was helping Courtney eat the chips,” Nicole reminded them. Kim laughed. They always pretended Taylor was eating something.
“You’re all wrong,” Courtney said from the stairs. All eyes turned to her. Lori grinned knowingly. Turning to Hanson, she beckoned to them to follow her the rest of the way downstairs. They did. The jaws of all the girls and Steve dropped.
Nicole squealed and giggled inanely. Kim joined her. Who knew shy, introverted Shannon would be the first to welcome them to her home. “Hi, this is my basement. These are my friends.” She introduced each person in the room.
Kim gazed at Taylor while Shannon greeted Hanson. He was even cuter in person. His long blond hair was soaking wet and dripped onto his already saturated thin black T-shirt. From where she was sitting, Kim could see goosebumps up his arm. The one thing she didn’t notice about Taylor was his aloofness to the girls. The way his blue eyes looked past their hungry eyes was how he looked at all his fans these days. Unknowing. Uncaring. He couldn’t get too attached to a fan.
The light above them flickered, threatening to go out. Remembering her fear, Jamie commented again that she wanted her mom. She was more calm, though.
“I saw my first tornado today,” Zac bragged. It really wasn’t anything to be proud of when the twister was head for him.
Courtney leaned against the bowl like chair Lindsey was in. “You’re kidding!” It isn’t headed toward us, is it?” A look of amused distress shone on her face.
Taylor continued, trying to freak Courtney out, “We heard on the radio that it’s headed this way.”
The grin on Kim’s face faded. Terror replaced the excited smile. Always ready to analyze, Courtney asked. “What did it say exactly?”
It was only about ten minutes ago that the Hansons heard the announcement, but for some reason, none of them could remember it. The girls watched the brothers argue about what it had said.
“Nevermind,” Courtney said. “It doesn’t matter.” She stepped over Nicole’s legs and sat down on the floor by Kim and Shannon.
“You guys can sit down,” Jamie said from the loveseat. The three guys didn’t know where to go. The small area was already crowded with bags, videos, food, and bodies. Since Isaac was the oldest and tallest, they mad a mental agreement that he could sit on the loveseat with Jamie. Zac spotted an open spot in front of the footstool Stever sat on. Taylor stood in bewilderment. There was no place for him.
“You can sit here, Tay,” Lori said, patting the vacant spot on the carpet beside her. Lori tossed Nicole’s bag out of the way to make room. It hit Kim in the back, but she barely noticed. Hesitantly, Taylor sat in the center of the room with Lori and Kim beside him, Shannon in front, and Nicole behind him.
Shannon juggled the remote in her hand, wondering whether she should play the Hanson tour video like they were going to do before. Deciding against it for the time being, she turned around and came almost face to face with Taylor. “What brings you guys to Merton, anyway?”
“Is that where we are?” Ike said with a grin on his face. “I guess you aren’t as good as reading maps as you thought, huh, Tay?”
“I guess not,” he admitted, “I thought we were in Waukesha.”
“That’s where I live!” Kim exclaimed. Just hearing the name of her home city roll off Taylor’s tounge made her excited.
Zac shivered. “Is it really cold down here or is it just me?” he asked. Before anyone else had a chance to respond, Lindsey removed the blanket from on her lap and tossed it down to Zac, who was right in front of her. He turned around and grinned. “Thanks.” Her heart melted. He was so cute!
Nicole noticed Zac’s toothy smile and felt a slight pang of jealously, something the happy girl rarely felt. Lindsey and Nicole were always fighting over Zac. Lindsey was very stubborn and was convinced that she should get him because of their similar ages. On the other hand, Nicole and Zac’s personalities were very close. Both of them were very wacky. Lindsey was quieter than Nicole although she had her moments.
“I think Tay needs a blanket, too,” said Kim, remembering the goosebumps on his arms.
Courtney noticed one next to the couch. She crawled over and passed it to Taylor, almost fainting when he took it from her. As she crawled back to her corner, she spotted her bag of chips that she had been munching on. She felt a laugh in her chest but didn’t let it surfact. Instead, she smiled and said, “Hey, does anyone want some chips?” The Hansons were hungry and greatfully accepted. Steve was a mooch and took any food offered to him. Zac was holding the bag, so he reached down from his footstool to get some chips for himself. Steve hated Hanson, but he just enjoyed the thought of being in a room with famous people.
Dropping the remote to the floor in front of her, Shannon turned around again. Watching Hanson on TV seemed pointless now since they were in her house. “What should we do?”
“Well,” started Ike. It wasn’t his house, but he did have an idea, “I’d like to learn more about you guys. It’s not very often we get to stay at a fan’s house and really learn about them.”
Courtney loved the idea because she loved talking about herself. While everyone explained themselves, Courtney, getting sick of the silence, took the remote from Shannon, turned on the TV, and started flipping through channels. Every single station was staticy. “Forget TV,” she said in the middle of Jamie’s introduction.
Their boredom and indecision was pierced by the sound of glass shattering. Knowing exactly where it had come from, Shannon jumped up from her spot and cautiously opened her bedroom door which was right next to the TV. Broken glass sparkled on Shannon’s bed.
Shannon screamed, “That is really cool,” she said in tense annoyance.
In curiosity, Courtney crawled over to the door and peaked through the door to the side of Shannon’s legs. “We’re dead,” her voice trembled.
“What?” A fear Zac never knew rocketed through his 13-year-old body when he heard the cold, ominous words out of Courtney’s mouth. 14-year-old Steve felt the same horror. He was terrified of storms almost as much as Jamie was. At this point, Jamie was all-out crying for her mom. Tension mounted in the room. The older teenagers and Lindsey shot shifty glances at each other. Lucky for them, the wind was coming from the wrong direction and didn’t blow directly into Shannon’s room. It had been a rock that hit the window, not the wind.
Courtney enjoyed scaring herself almost as much as she enjoyed taking charge. It seemed to be more helpful at this point to show off her attempt at leadership. “Calm down, guys!” she yelled above the rucous. Standing up to her full height of 5’10,” she stared down at her friends and the three guys she wanted to be her friends. Noticing Ike staring back at her, she almost collapsed and lost all courage.
